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Chizik Putting Together A Solid Staff

New Auburn defensive coordinator Ted Roof

By Barrett Sallee

CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted Jan 6, 2009

With the announcement of Ted Roof as the new defensive coordinator at Auburn University, new head coach Gene Chizik has quietly put together quite an impressive staff.

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Auburn’s decision to hire Gene Chizik last month to replace the recently-departed Tommy Tuberville was greeted with great skepticism by college football fans, including many within the Auburn Family. However, over the last few days and weeks, Chizik has quietly laid an impressive foundation for the Auburn program by bringing in a core of assistant coaches that are highly regarded both on the sidelines, and in the living room of potential recruits.

On Tuesday, Auburn officially announced that Ted Roof will be taking over the reins of the Auburn defense. Roof, who was the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils from 2004-2007, as well as interim head coach at the end of 2003, joins the Auburn staff after a successful one-year stint as defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Roof’s defense was a major factor in the Golden Gopher turnaround in 2008. He took what was the worst defense in America in 2007, giving up 519 yards per game, and made them competitive again. In 2008, Roof’s one and only season in Minnesota, the Gophers improved to 79th in the nation in total defense (383 ypg), 69th in the nation rush defense (143 ypg) and 24th in the nation in sacks (2.5 per game). Those aren’t exactly eye-popping numbers. But, given where the Gophers were on the defensive side of the ball just one year earlier, it is quite impressive.

The announcement of Roof as the new Tiger defensive coordinator makes him the sixth assistant hired to Chizik’s new staff at Auburn. He joins new offensive coordinator Gus Malzhan, assistant head coach/receivers coach Trooper Taylor, running backs coach Curtis Luper, special teams coach Jay Boulware and former Auburn linebackers coach James Willis, who hasn’t been assigned a specific role on the new staff yet, on the plains.

Malzhan comes to the Tigers after two wildly successful seasons as the offensive coordinator with Tulsa, where he led the Golden Hurricane to the nation’s best offense in both 2007 and 2008 in terms of total offense. In 2007, Tulsa became the first team ever to have a 5,000-yard passer, three 1,000-yard receivers and a 1,000-yard rusher in the same season. Malzhan is no stranger to the SEC. He led the Arkansas Razorbacks to the SEC West title in 2006 in his one and only season as offensive coordinator in Fayetteville.

Trooper Taylor officially joined Chizik’s staff at Auburn on Monday, after serving as the co-offensive coordinator for the Oklahoma State Cowboys in 2008. Like Malzhan, Taylor is also familiar with the SEC. He achieved cult-hero status as a member of Phillip Fulmer’s staff at Tennessee from 2004-2007 with his emotional demeanor on the sidelines and relentless recruiting in the living room.

Auburn’s football program was in disarray following Tommy Tuberville’s abrupt resignation in early December and athletic director Jay Jacobs’ subsequent revolving door of coaching interviews. The announcement of Chizik, who was 5-19 in his two years at Iowa State, certainly didn’t help matters when, statistically, there were far more qualified candidates that had been interviewed – and others that were ignored – during the search. But, as any good CEO does, Chizik has surrounded himself with the right personnel. In the process, he has slowly begun to lift the veil of dismay off the Auburn football program, and given Tiger fans at least a small glimmer of hope.

It’s no secret that Chizik has his work cut out for him at Auburn, taking over a team that finished under .500, with seemingly no hope for the future, just as Tuberville did 10 years earlier. But, Chizik’s plan of surrounding himself with quality assistants and relentless recruiters shows that, contrary to popular belief when he was initially hired, he might have been the right man for the job after all.